My journey to St. Jerome's University is a circuitous one, one with many bumps on the road. I was born in Dublin and raised in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, the eldest of 13 children in a rural working class family. As the son of a stonemason, I have much experience working in construction, working as a labourer and bricklayer in Ireland. I completed my undergraduate degree in Trinity College (Dublin), majoring in Economics and Sociology. During the summers I worked construction in the United States to help pay for university.

After my undergraduate degree, I worked in construction in San Francisco and Alaska for a few years. I came to Toronto with my wife for two years (as I promised her) to do MA in Analytic Sociology a perspective invented by Blum and McHugh, work I had been exposed to in Trinity. As if by accident, I found my Socratic vocation, and decided to pursue a PhD on power and ethics in this area. We stayed in Toronto for 10 years, during which time our three children were born. I got my first teaching job in a small liberal arts university (Augustana) in Camrose, Alberta. I really enjoyed the liberal arts ethos and came to be committed to its virtue as an educational foundation for a future life. For twelve years, we raised our family (‘a great place to raise kids’!!) and I taught many courses, working out my vocation in the context of a strong liberal arts community.

When an administration opportunity at St. Jerome's University came up, I pursued it as it seemed an ideal university to continue my work, combining the commitment to a liberal arts education with the opportunities to participate in graduate school supervision. Coming here also gave me the opportunity to work on several large interdisciplinary research projects with colleagues from across Canada. I continue to enjoy developing and practicing my vocation in life as well as in teaching, research and service here at St. Jerome's University.

Grants
Research Grant from St. Jerome's University Research Fund (Competition) “The Culture and Ethics of Profound Longing: Desire, Alcohol and Addiction.” (2016)
Co-Applicant on SSHRC Connections Grant “Heritage in transition: scenes of urban innovation”, 4th Annual IASCC Conference, Syros, Greece. (2016)
St. Jerome's University Additional Professional Development Fund (Competitive). Presenting papers at the 2nd International Association for the Study of the Culture of Cities in Toronto and the 21st Annual ACTC Conference in Plymouth, Mass (2015)
Co-Applicant on SSHRC Connections Grant "Technologies and techniques:" the 11th conference of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. (2013)
Co-Investigator on SSHRC Insight Grants Competition entitled, “Innovating Cultural Communities: Care as an Aesthetic Engagement” has received a 4A status from University of Waterloo’s 4A Scholar program. (2013)
Publication Grant from Aid to Scholarly Publications Fund (Competition): Culture and 'Out of Place-ness' in Post Celtic Tiger Ireland. Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. Vol 37, No.1. Guest Co-Editors Kieran Bonner and Alexandra Slaby. (2013)
Research Grant from St. Jerome's University Research Fund (Competition): Arendt’s Political Theory and Blum and McHugh’s Analysis: Responses to the Limits of the Social Science Paradigm (2011)
Co-Investigator, Canadian Institute of Health Research: City Life and Well Being: the Grey Zone in Health and Illness. (2006-2011)
Co-investigator, SSHRC: The Culture of Cities: Montreal Toronto Berlin Dublin. (2000-2005)
Research Grant: The Blum and McHugh History Project. (2006)
SSHRC Grant-Aid to Small Universities. Collaborated with the Academic Dean on an application for a 3-year grant for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Liberal Arts at Augustana (1999)
Research consultant for Professor Ioan Davies’ research project on the Changes in Identity and Culture in Dublin of the 1990s.(1999) Globalization and the Culture of the City (1998)
Publication Subvention. Augustana University College (1997)
Publication Subvention A Great Place to Raise Kids?  Experience, Knowledge, Interpretation and the Dilemma of the Urban-Rural Discourse. Aid to Scholarly Publications Program of SSHRC (1995)
Faculty Research Fund Re-examining the distinction between modernity and tradition in sociology through research on the case of parenting: An exploratory study. Augustana University College, for computer notebook to facilitate interviews, literature search, etc. as well as ongoing research activities (1993)
Research Grant, Committee for Research, Scholarship and Creative Work, Augustana University College, for travel to Ireland and within Ireland to conduct interviews and literature search about the difference a rural setting makes to parenting (1993)
Founding member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Liberal Arts, (funded by SSHRC) and publisher of Dianoia (1990-1995)
Principal Investigator, SSHRC Strategic Research Grant, Socialization and Gemeinschaft: Myth, Ideology or Reality.  Literature search, content analysis and focused interviewing (1989-1990)
Co-Initiator/Director, Committee for Research, Scholarship and Creative Work at Augustana University College, Invitational issue of Dianoia launched in Spring 1990 (1989-1990)
Co-Director of a pilot research project: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Interest of the Community in the Relation Between Parents and Children. Committee for Research, Scholarship and Creative Work, Augustana University College (1988)

Fellowships
Hannah Arendt Visiting Fellow, Hannah Arendt Center for Humanities and Politics at Bard College (2011)
Visiting Fellow in the Humanities at Galway University in Ireland (1993-1994)

Contemporary and Classical Theory and Methodology (esp., Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, Hermeneutics, Analysis);
The Culture of Cities: Dublin, Montreal, Toronto
The Grey Zone of Health and Illness (Alcohol Consumption and Addiction)
Theorizing Community and the Urban-Rural Discourse
Sociology of the Family (Parent/Child relations)
Ancient Athens (Homer, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)